The
Rev. Joseph Albert DeLaine was an ordinary man who wanted his children
to receive an education equal to that of whites in the 1950s. He never
realized this single desire would lead him to the center of a landmark
event in U.S. history.

A
decade later in 1961, attorney Matthew Perry championed the cause of a
young black man named Harvey Gantt to enroll in Clemson University. When
Gantt - who would go on to become mayor of Charlotte - enrolled a year
later, it marked the end of segregated higher education in South Carolina.

A
lot has changed, or has it? That's one of many questions that will be
explored during a Feb. 26 symposium at The Citadel. "African American
Education in South Carolina: Past, Present and Future" features Perry,
DeLaine's son, Joseph DeLaine Jr., and Beatrice Rivers, and others who
witnessed how the civil rights movement affected schools in South Carolina
and elsewhere.

"Fifty
years after the landmark decision, Americans are still evaluating the
consequences of the court case and pondering how to address persistent
disparities in education that prohibit African American social advancement,"
said Marcus Cox, Citadel professor of history.

Joining
Perry, DeLaine, and Rivers at the symposium will be Richard W. Riley,
former S.C. governor and U.S. Education Secretary in the Clinton administration,
Lorin Anderson, distinguished professor of education at the University
of South Carolina and expert witness in Abbeville County School District
v. the State of South Carolina (1996), and Stephen G. Morrison, a partner
of Nelson Mullins, Riley & Scarborough, L.L.P. and lead attorney representing
the Abbeville County School District. Rivers and DeLaine Sr. were original
plaintiffs in the South Carolina lawsuit of Briggs v. Elliott, which later
became part of the landmark Brown v. Topeka Board of Education decision
in 1954 declaring the separate but equal doctrine unconstitutional.

Claudia
Brinson, staff writer at The State newspaper in Columbia, will moderate
the 6:30 p.m. symposium in the Holliday Alumni Center, 69 Hagood Ave.
The symposium is sponsored by The Citadel Department of Multiculturalism
and the School of Education. It is free and open to the public.